Metamorphosis by Polly Morland

Morland is a measured, ever-curious and approachable guide through these stories, and she never takes the easy way out of them by denying their complexity, or attempting too much in the way of universally applicable self-help.
-Guardian

Synopsis

What makes a violinist become a policeman, or a monk fall in love? How does someone lose eighteen stone in as many months? Or a follower of radical Islam turn his back on holy war? When can simply taking a new name usher in a new life? And how does a family adapt to the brain injury that changes their son or brother beyond recognition? These and other stories combine with a wealth of smart thinking from psychology, philosophy, literature and science as Polly Morland unravels the mysteries and the mechanisms of human change.Most of us would like to change something about ourselves, although all too often we feel that we can't. Yet as this book shows, change is not an event-it is a process at which we are more skilled than we realise, a story we are already good at telling. Exploring how some people harness the change that governs all our lives and then succeed in shaping it, like master storytellers, toward the happy ending of their choosing, Polly Morland shows that change is possible for us all. Appealing to that part of anyone that is stuck in a rut, Metamorphosis is about how and why real people change, and how the imagination can become the engine of our transformation too.

During fifteen years as a documentary maker, Polly Morland worked as producer/director for the BBC and Channel Four, as well as for PBS and the Discovery Channel. Her first book, The Society of Timid Souls, won a Jerwood Award and was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. She lives in Chepstow.www.pollymorland.com

Critic reviews for Metamorphosis
All: 2 | Positive: 1 | Negative: 1

Guardian

Reviewed by Tim Adams
on
May 15 2016

Morland is a measured, ever-curious and approachable guide through these stories, and she never takes the easy way out of them by denying their complexity, or attempting too much in the way of universally applicable self-help. Still, certain themes emerge.

Guardian

Reviewed by Tim Adams
on
May 15 2016

Morland is a measured, ever-curious and approachable guide through these stories, and she never takes the easy way out of them by denying their complexity, or attempting too much in the way of universally applicable self-help.